U.S. Rep. Tom Reed is co-sponsoring a bill aimed at heading off Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to offer college classes to state prison inmates.

By James Postjpost@the-leader.com

U.S. Rep. Tom Reed is co-sponsoring a bill aimed at heading off Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to offer college classes to state prison inmates.

The “Kids Before Cons Act,” as it’s called by Reed, sponsor Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., and fellow cosponsor Chris Gibson, R-N.Y., would ban using federal funds to pay for programs like the one Cuomo proposed last week.“It is simply not fair to ask hardworking taxpayers to pay for college for convicted criminals when they struggle to put their own children through college,” Reed said.

Specifically, the bill, H.R. 4081, would prohibit federal Department of Education or Department of Justice funds from being used for college courses for those incarcerated in state or federal prisons.

Reed noted that the bill doesn’t ban spending on GED, work training or literacy training programs.

Last week, Cuomo proposed a plan to offer associate’s and bachelor’s degree programs at 10 prisons throughout New York state.

His office has said they’ll be seeking proposals from colleges to run the programs in early March.

Cuomo has said the aim of the plan is to reduce recidivism, or the chance that convicts will return to prison after release.

In responding to the proposal, State Sen. Tom O’Mara, R-Big Flats, and Assemblyman Phil Palmesano, R-Corning, both said a better way to reduce recidivism would be to keep the Monterey Shock Incarceration Facility open.

The boot-camp-like facility in Schuyler County has been touted as highly effective at keeping non-violent offenders out of the state prison system once they complete their time there.

As for the prison college proposal itself, O’Mara called it “outrageous.”

O’Mara and Palmesano, in a joint statement, said the Monterey Shock facility has a recidivism rate of 26 percent, compared to 42 percent for state prisoners overall.

But one privately-funded prison education program, run by Bard College at several prisons in the Hudson Valley, boasts a 4 percent recidivism rate.

O’Mara and Palmesano also bristled at the suggestion that federal money would be spent on education for criminals when there’s an increasing debt load on law-abiding students.

Gibson apparently agreed with that sentiment.

“We can do better than spend federal taxpayer dollars on the education of convicted criminals when our hardworking New Yorkers need the assistance themselves,” Gibson, who represents part of all of Erie, Niagara, Orleans, Genesee, Wyoming, Monroe, Livingston and Ontario counties, said in a statement.

Reed also expressed concern at the cost to taxpayers for Cuomo’s proposal.

“New Yorkers are faced with enough taxes and mandates – they do not need to worry about funding college for convicted criminals when they are trying to care for their own families,” he said.

There was some question last week over whether the plan would require approval from the state Legislature.Cuomo’s office has told media outlets they believe they can do it without legislation.